I’m 51 years old and have been watching MMA back when it was NHB and I had to order VHS tapes from full contact fighter.
When I was in my late teens I’d just gotten out of foster care, I was (still am) 5"7 about 120 lbs, and was basically scared of everything. I started training and it did a lot for me in my life. When I started I would have to sit in my car and psyche myself into just walking into sparring class… and I was right to be scared, becauseI was awful. I mean I was always the worst person in the room. And after many years… I was still pretty awful. Maybe mediocre? But I made friends, I built confidence, I learned the intangible life skills that lead me to succeed in other areas. I learned to respect myself because I was doing something hard and scary, and learned that I could do that in other places besides the gym.
I also got a profound respect for what it takes to do this sport and also how talented you have to be in order to execute in those situations… and I’ve never gotten over that. It’s why now as a middle aged guy with kids in college I still watch a fight anytime it’s on, small local venue to a big UFC PPV. I see young men and women challenging themselves to be their best version, doing something incredibly intense and scary and exhilarating and I find that I take away from it what I want (which is frequently totally different than what the media, the sportscasters, UGer’s take away). I watched last nights Nunes vs Pena fight with my eyes glued to the set in awe of Pena’s championship heart. That young lady didn’t concede an inch, not a micro second of that fight and that to me is compelling to watch.
I’m not a big fan of either Nunes or Pena but they both showed a strong will to win & it made for a compelling contest. And a special shout out to Pena for her courage in the face of a more powerful foe. She deserves extra credit for being dangerous with her submissions right up till the end.
I also grew up in Foster homes and found confidence and solace in myself on the wrestling mats in middle school. My love for mma stemmed from then… We’re not so different, you and I Op.
I had no interest in that fight whatsoever and further found the outcome predictable but Pena’s heart and will to endure made that match infinitely more compelling than it should have been.
I think Pena exposed holes in Amandas game in the process - chiefly that Amanda doesnt like getting hit and freezes every time she does. Also her ground game is … not what i would expect from an ATT bb.
True, you would need to search rly hard to find somebody similar in mens division
And its such paradox, you will need to search rly hard to find somebody with such a skill set in mens div
lol. She exposed holes by never submitting her and seriously threatening one time for several seconds, even though she was in guard half the fight and grabbing inside the gloves over and over to try and keep the arm in, and still couldn’t?
Exposed was the “wrestler” of the 2, who couldn’t win a second of the ground fighting and couldn’t even put up serious resistance to the takedowns.
As for Amanda “not liking to get hit,” that’s an even more strange take. She is literally smiling during rockem sockem moments against cyborg and others. Standing toe to toe, banging. Not running at all. It’s even how she lost last time, in spite of better judgement. Then this fight, she gets hit, circles to her right, keeps her head up and lands the right hand over and over. Someone who is afraid or reacts poorly to getting hit does not keep their eyes up and deliver counters that make the charging opponent do backflips.